Biology

Physiology

Sableye are very diminutive hominid-like creatures with dark purple bodies. Their bodies are adapted for cave life as they are flexible enough to fit into small crevices while being tough enough to survive cave-ins. Their most distinguishing features are their gemstone-like eyes, which allow them to see in very little light. They have gemstones on their chests which grow as a result of its crystal and mineral diet. They are able to feed on such hard foods because of their sharp razor teeth, which are designed to crunch up rocks.

Behavior

There are old stories that say a Sableye will steal your soul if you look into its eyes. However, evidence suggests that these Pokémon are actually friendly, only playing their infamous tricks on travelers in order to get attention because they become lonely living in dark holes all by themselves.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky: Six Sableye perform the same role as above, and in addition appear in Special episode 5, which contains the events happening after Grovyle returns to the future with Dusknoir, and play a role in the episodes plot.

Since Sableye is one of the two Pokémon that has a typing with no weaknesses, it and Spiritomb are commonly hacked to have the Ability Wonder Guard. This hack is commonly referred to as Wondereye.

Sableye is known for having both a ruby and a sapphire and a small emerald on its body. Its Shiny form also appears to have some emeralds on the chest. This is most likely a reference to the three games of the generation it debuted in.

Sableye seems to be the counterpart of Mawile. Both of them are version-exclusive of Ruby and Sapphire, as well as in HeartGold and SoulSilver. They also have the same base stat total (with the same base HP and Speed). Sableye is also a dual-type Pokémon with no weakness, while Mawile is the single type with the most resistances. They are also the only two Pokémon that can learn Metal Burst by breeding.

Sableye shares the same species name with Murkrow. They are both known as Darkness Pokémon.

Sableye has the lowest base stat total of all fully evolved Dark-type Pokémon.

Origin

Sableye is a stylization of the Hopkinsville Goblin, a creature from an alleged Kentucky "alien encounter" described as having shining eyes, small legs, clawed arms and swaying hips (a movement that Sableye does indeed imitate in the 3-D Pokémon games). The Hopkinsville aliens are most famous in Japan, where they have appeared in other anime and video games.

Name origin

Sableye is a combination of sable and eye. It may also be a play on able-eyed.

Yamirami may be a combination of 闇 yami (darkness) and 藪睨み yabunirami (a squint) or 睨み nirami (glare).